Opposable Thumbs —

Ars readers pick the 12 most incredible webcomics

We listed our favorites, then you gave us 120+ of yours.

Last Friday, we nominated our favorite webcomics and asked you to recommend yours. Boy, did Ars readers deliver. Approximately 123 unique recommendations later, we're culling the best and most recommended comics into a handy list for your perusal. There's a lot our original list missed, and because we can't list all 123 recommendations here, we'll inevitably miss a lot more in this follow-up. But here are some overwhelmingly reader-approved webcomics that you'll want to check out (if you haven't done so already.)

Shlock Mercenary

If ever there was an exercise in dedication, it appears to be embodied by the creator of Schlock Mercenary. Cervus got into the comments early to tell us "No Schlock Mercenary? I am disappoint. Hard scifi webcomic, updated without missing a day since June of 2000. Nominated for the Hugo several times (lost to Girl Genius on all of them)." abj21 agreed, saying, "This. Schlock is by far my favorite webcomic. I have been reading it daily for over a decade."

"[N]ot only is it hard scifi with strong story arcs, it manages to bring the funny nearly every day," wrote swilhelm. And reader davolfman gives us the reason behind his respect for the comic: "I think Schlock Mercenary should be on any list. It is probably by far the most professional webcomic out there with an artist who supports a family now and does what it takes to have a daily comic for more than a decade straight without interruption. He didn't start with any talent, just a plan to do it right and has stuck with it while the art improved."

The comic is character-driven, so it will be hard for readers to just pick up at the beginning and go from there. Although, if you don't have the time to digest the 4,600+ entries that Howard Tayler has penned, it's easy enough to get a feel for the characters if you pick up somewhere in the middle.

Questionable Content

Questionable Content from Jeph Jacques "won" in our comments section, garnering 12 mentions from 150+ comments and at least a billion upvotes for those comments that mentioned QC. maeltor offered glowing praise: "+1 for QC!!! Have been reading that near every damn day for a few years now. When I first started, he was a few years in, so I sat and read from start to finish. It's very cool how you can see how his artwork abilities have improved for the years. He's a good Twitter source of funny as well."

"Jeph's done a great job of making a comic and characters that you love following day after day," wrote DrHogie. "I'm a HUGE fan of QC as well. Definitely a winner there too," replied H2O rip. The irreverent and sometimes absurd comic made many of our readers' "Check Every Day" lists, and will appeal to anyone who cares "about romance, indie rock, little robots, and the problems people have," according to the website. If you fit in any of those broad categories, you'll want to check this comic out.

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja

Written and drawn by Christopher Hastings, The Adventures of Dr. McNinja was a crowd favorite for the whimsical and hilarious characters. "I never know what is coming in Dr McNinja," said reflex-croft. "Where's Dr. McNinja?" Caedus asked. "I'm guessing he's here lurking somewhere in the article but we can't see him. Because he's a ninja. And a Doctor."

The comic, which is laid out in a series of "issues" that the reader can select from a drop-down menu, is easier to pick up than other long-running comic with character arcs because of its segmented style. The omission of Dr. McNinja from the original list caused incredulity among readers, with Tamsen saying, "enderandrew and probably others have pointed out that you've missed Dr. McNinja. Criminal, absolutely criminal!"

Achewood

Achewood is another Internet-old comic. Created by Chris Onstad, the comic has been running since 2001. "I mean... I guess that this is a good look at what's out there currently, but a list without Achewood feels entirely incomplete. It was a cornerstone in the founding days of webcomics and, in my opinion, nothing else in the medium has come close to the Great Outdoor Fight arc," wrote jimbles. Editor Patrick Miller at Game Developer Magazine messaged us to vote for Achewood, and also suggested we start at Great Outdoor Fight and read from there.

Achewood isn't for everyone though. enderandrew said he used to be a reader, but no longer. "I read Achewood for a really long time, and it was occasionally brilliant, but often but bizarre and nonsensical. If I don't care for the characters in long-form story, and you're not consistently funny, then I won't keep reading."

Girl Genius

"Questionable Content and Girl Genius are the only story arc comics I can be bothered to follow anymore," wrote skyywise. Indeed, many Ars readers felt that way, as Girl Genius came in a close second to Questionable Content in mentions and in comment upvotes.

"An intricate storyline and I don't know how they can turn out 3 full color pages a week," wrote randomjoe. The well-done art and the sci-fi adventure storyline both got mad props from our commenters. Nekojin gave us the backstory: "A comic by Phil Foglio that originally started as a standard 'dead-tree' comic, and changed into a webcomic when they had some difficulties with publishing the monthly title. Being freed from the constraints of the standard page layout has resulted in some truly fabulous strips (even though most pages still adhere to that format)."

The Perry Bible Fellowship

This webcomic was a favorite among our readers, although it's no longer updated regularly. The Perry Bible Fellowship is usually only three or four panels long, so it's short compared to others we've mentioned, but those few inches of content are heavy on irreverence.

"Though it's been on hiatus for a while, The Perry Bible Fellowship (occasionally NSFW) probably deserves to be mentioned in this context. Though it started in print, it gained much fame as a web comic. Not the best choice for those who are easily offended, but it was consistently clever and very well drawn," wrote mrCharlie

"I also miss the Perry Bible Fellowship," lamented HitScan. But regular updates are not a requirement for making this list, so if sometimes-surreal humor is your style, be sure to check out the archives.